The whole family appeared to be present and correct as I came down to the drawing-room a couple of nights later. The Prof, Mrs Prof, the two Exhibits and the girl Heloise were scattered about at intervals. The cat slept on the rug, the canary in its cage. There was nothing, in short, to indicate that this was not just one of our ordinary evenings.
'Well, well, well!' I said cheerily. 'Hullo-ullo-ullo!'
I always like to make something in the nature of an entrance speech, it seeming to me to lend a chummy tone to the proceedings.
The girl Heloise looked at me reproachfully.
'Where have you been all day?' she asked.
'I went to my room after lunch.'
'You weren't there at five.'
'No. After putting in a spell of work on the good old colleges I went for a stroll. Fellow must have exercise if he means to keep fit.'
'Mens sana in corpore sano,' observed the prof.
'I shouldn't wonder,' I said cordially.